Top 5 Affordable Web Based Invoicing Tools For Self Employed Workers/Freelancers
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One inescapable part of running a business that can’t be avoided whether you are a self employed graphic designer, plumber or session singer is a requirement to manage your hours, time and billing effectively and of course do your tax returns.
Sure, we all like seeing the money pouring into our bank accounts, but few of us enjoy the tedious underlying process of making it all happen, which can involve meticulously completing timesheets, book-keeping, preparing invoices, sending out invoices and chasing invoices and doing our tax return at the end of the year. Personally, I used to both loathe and fear the finance side of the business which is why I had an accountant and book-keeper to handle this side of things.
This was effective, but was unnecessarily expensive and did not give me enough visibility into my finances. All this changed when I found and started using online invoicing software. These systems make the financial side of being self-employed almost enjoyable by automating much of the financial process. For example, many of these systems can be automatically connected to your bank account so income and expenses are automatically tracked.
You can also track your time and include clients in your system and quickly generate, send and track invoice payments, all from inside these systems. These cloud based invoicing systems allow you to store receipts and act as an automated book-keeping system and at the end of the year you can automatically generate itemised profit and loss statements making it quick and easy for you to use your tax return.
As a result of moving to cloud based invoicing, my personal accounting requirements reduced meaning that I could reduce my accounting fees by half by moving from an face-to-face traditional accountant to a virtual accountant. Below, you can find:
3 Free or Affordable Web Based Invoicing Tools For Freelancers and Small Business
1.Freshbooks. This comes with a no credit card, 30 day free trial and costs just a few dollars/pounds a month to use thereafter. It comes with an inbuilt time-sheet too invoice feature. It’s very easy to use and enables you to create professional, brand aligned invoices in seconds. Other useful features include multiple currency invoicing, automated reminders and the ability to charge late fees at a percentage or flat rate. It is the complete invoicing solution. Click to Trial FreshBooks Now
It also has a system for you to easily capture expenses. They have just added a new feature, called Payment Schedules. This is a great feature that allows Freshbooks users to set up a Payment Schedule on invoices so clients can pay them in multiple and partial installments. This means that you no longer have to create multiple invoices, or continually edit an existing invoice whenever a new payment is due!
This will make life much easier when working on longer projects that extend over several payment cycles. The feature, located at the bottom of new invoices, allows you to add up to 12 payments, and choose the percentage or amount as well as the date of each payment. Once completed, the schedule will be displayed at the bottom of the invoice. Click to Trial FreshBooks Now
2.Xero Invoicing/is a powerful and easy-to-use online invoicing software. It includes customisable templates, automatic reminders and multiple online payment options.Reduce repetitive manual data entry and speed up your invoicing by using preset inventory items, replicating previous invoices, and setting up repeating invoices.
3.Zoho Invoice. This is a market leading, web-based invoicing software tool. It comes feature-loaded and includes key functionality such as: simple web-based invoicing, ability to accept card payments, pricing estimate tool, time-tracking, expenses and a client portal. Pricing is free for 1 user and up to 25 customers, so perfect for solepreneurs, with prices starting at £5 a month for 1 users and 25 customers.
4.Waveapps. This is another very user-friendly invoicing tool. Like Freshbooks above, it's a very easy to use cloud accounting tool with the all important invoicing functionality, which is often the crucial element you'll need when you are just starting out. The system allows you to send unlimited invoices from the outset, and enables you to accept credit card payments, but a fee is charged for every invoice you send, so it has a slightly different pay model to Freshbooks, and is more similar to paypal who charge a fee per transaction.
5.Actitime.This is another free or affordable invoicing tool which allows you to track time and expenses and prepare accurate invoices and send them to clients, although the invoicing features are only available with the premium addition. It also has some in-built task and work-flow management tools and excellent reporting capabilities.
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